Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » TMIG and Mai (1x1)

"That's what I'm here for isn't it?" She laughed and started in the direction of voices and shouts. Slowing down, not only for his benefit, but her own as well. If she accidentally knocked into somebody Mai wouldn't have thought just reacted and looked at them apologetically. There was a considerable amount of people today. Well, there should be. The traveling market only came around every second month of the year.

They always brought with them things that from far away places and dreams. Some booths could contain precious stones and jems while others would have materials a king would die for. Even the locals would trade with them and sell them things if they could. That was the main reason they were there in the first place.

Mai kept hearing him grunt in pain. She didn't think feeling sorry for him would make him any better. So she instead, thought talking would help keep his mind off of some of the annoying pangs. "Your armor is very beautiful, would you mind telling me about it?" She smiled as she turned her head slightly to the side. Still keeping her eyes down.

As they made their way through the market, the Man in Gold pushed his way through the crowd brusquely; a few people collided with him and were pushed down, but he he didn't even look at them, let alone try to help them up. Soon, people started to give the tall, armored man a wide berth, as well as Mai to a lesser extent. Her question triggered a snort from him; his armor had once been prided on its beauty, but that had been thousands of years before. It had saved his skin far more times than he could count, and anymore he wore it anywhere on the expectation of being attacked.

"It was made by the finest smiths of adamantine on my planet, and just assembling enough ore to forge it has cost a small fortune. The forging itself, and the carving of all of these features that you see in it had cost a lot of money too. Finally, the gold leaf over everything was treated with a special chemical to keep it long-lasting, which wasn't cheap either. But, it's lasted more than 13,000 years with most of it," he gestured to the missing plate on the top of his right boot, the dent above his left eye in the helmet, and the right pauldron with a large caved-in area in its center, "intact, and it's saved my life countless times."

As they continued, he looked at her carefully; she struck him as interesting, if only because she was asking him about himself rather than going along begrudgingly or trying to attack him. Perhaps, when he had his book, he could tell her more, but there were a lot of things that would be too long, too painful, or too dangerous to tell her about.

She listened intently to him talk, enjoying all the detail he put into words for her perspective. "You can always get more money, never something that is as reliable and memorable such as that." She said. Mai watched as he made a wide path, mostly by people's refusal to be knocked down or ran into. She kind of found it funny, but didn't voice the giggle that she held deep in her throat.

"What measures out time.
Until in time
All is smashed to it?"

That however did come out as she moved slower. They had finally reached the inside of the market. The street was full except for where he stood. Mai was grateful for it even if he was doing it unintentionally. "I don't know about this one, but I have a pretty good guess." She looked behind her at him. Again, always at the shoulder. People always thought there was something wrong with her eyesight and she never told them otherwise. Now they just have to find the thief...she turned her head back toward the booths.

He stopped when she had, and looked around him. There were plenty of people in the market, but he picked out one or two possible candidates for the thief as he scanned them. As Mai finished speaking, he replied in a low, gravelly tone.

"Hourglass. Now, do you see that man over there?" He pointed his arm over her head and extended a finger, covered by his golden gauntlet, at a man who was near a stall with antiques for sale. "I would try him first. If nothing comes of it, there are a couple others that we can try."

He paused, thinking on what sort of strategy they would take before speaking up again.

"When we get over to him, how will we do this? I can hold him down and you take a look, right?"

"Oh! You were so close!" She laughed and shook her head. "It is sand. I will give you that one." without looking where he was pointing for the obvious reason, said "No there will be no need for that." She dug around in her pockets until she found what she was looking for. Holding it out for him to see for himself. It wasn't much, just a small ruby. "I can make this be anything I want it to be, here watch." As she held it up, it changed shape to a flower and then continuing to change to a mantas and so on. "I will do what everyone else is doing." She turned, pulling her hood over her face as she walked alone. Or she thought she was, Mai didn't think he would put himself in more pain than he had to. As she walked up to the man he pointed to, which she saw in the glint of the old mans golden armor as he showed her.

"Excuse me sir, but if you could find some worth in this trinket of mine. You see, it was given to me by my husband who passed away at a young age," She pretended to be saddened by the well woven lie. "It holds a lot of memories, but I just can't keep it anymore." the man looked to her as she spoke the last sentence and she looked up and instantly she was drawn in.

There wasn't much there, but again in the background she could see the book clearly as the man made a desperate attempt to sell the book. People couldn't see the value of it. Except...a man seemed to be watching the thief as he tried to make profit from the book. Then she realized that this was the second man that the old man had shown her. When she came back to reality, the man wavered and she scurried off to look at the picture that she knew would be waiting on the page.